A Novel Approach To Intelligent Navigation Of A Mobile Robot In A Dynamic And Cluttered Indoor Environment

The need and rationale for improved solutions to indoor robot navigation is increasingly driven by the influx of domestic and industrial mobile robots into the market. This research has developed and implemented a novel navigation technique for a mobile robot operating in a cluttered and dynamic indoor environment. It divides the indoor navigation problem into three distinct but interrelated parts, namely, localization, mapping and path planning. The localization part has been addressed using dead-reckoning (odometry). A least squares numerical approach has been used to calibrate the odometer parameters to minimize the effect of systematic errors on the performance, and an intermittent resetting technique, which employs RFID tags placed at known locations in the indoor environment in conjunction with door-markers, has been developed and implemented to mitigate the errors remaining after the calibration. A mapping technique that employs a laser measurement sensor as the main exteroceptive sensor has been developed and implemented for building a binary occupancy grid map of the environment. A-r-Star pathfinder, a new path planning algorithm that is capable of high performance both in cluttered and sparse environments, has been developed and implemented. Its properties, challenges, and solutions to those challenges have also been highlighted in this research. An incremental version of the A-r-Star has been developed to handle dynamic environments. Simulation experiments highlighting properties and performance of the individual components have been developed and executed using MATLAB. A prototype world has been built using the WebotsTM robotic prototyping and 3-D simulation software. An integrated version of the system comprising the localization, mapping and path planning techniques has been executed in this prototype workspace to produce validation results

Providing A Premarital Education Seminar For The Single Young Adults Of Abuakwa Seventh-day Adventist Church In Ghana

Problem In my years of service as a gospel minister, I noticed that a sizeable number of church members are censured or disfellowshipped on marriage or family issues, including divorce, adultery or fornication. The reasons for these unfortunate situations in our changing society could be linked to misunderstanding about marriage and the needed preparations. The major root cause of these problems on the part of both the young adults and the older people is inadequate premarital education. This results in wrong selection of life partners, short circuiting the courtship process and misunderstanding of what constitute marital satisfaction and marital stability. The problem of inadequate premarital education gives room for single young adults to search for sexual intimacy from any source that they can access. In some cases, such problems lead to maladaptive sexual behaviors and corrosive habits that challenge wholesome heterosexual sex in the context of marriage. Method An eight-day premarital education seminar was developed and implemented at Abuakwa Seventh-day Adventist church in Ashanti Region of Ghana. This seminar was conducted from March 12 to 19, 2016, with the objective to prepare the single young adults between ages 20 and 35 for marriage. During the seminar, 90 young adults were taken through a 10 lecture presentation series that included both pre- and post-seminar surveys, question and answer method, video presentations and discussions among participants. The educational seminar which was implemented had few challenges and so after the program, an evaluation was done. Both the successes and the challenges were noted. Results Throughout the seminar, these single young adults expressed their joy for such a program to be conducted in the church, and wished it was done on a regular basis. It came to light that some of these young adults were participating in a premarital education seminar for the first time. The participants took part in both the pre-survey and post-survey, and were curious to study the solutions to challenges relating to securing stable and satisfactory marriages. The study also showed that the young adults recognized the need for premarital education as the most important part of the initial preparation for marriages. The materials used during the seminar motivated the young adults who showed their eagerness to select best life partners, acquire separate living arrangements, and foster good communication during marriage life. They saw the need to improve their religious faith and expressed their desire to achieve marital success and stability. The participants sought for clarification on communication issues and conflict management, sexuality and family planning for couples. They also inquired about the best way to choose a marriage partner, and when a young adult can say no to a marriage proposal. Conclusion The outcome of the seminar indicated that premarital education is the single young adults’ most important need, before they actually decide to date friends and select partners for courtship. It became clear that the young generation needed some theological foundation for marriage, and this confirms the fact that marriage partners need biblical support. It is generally believed that couples who have similar values and objectives achieve much success in life. At the end of the seminar, most of the participants agreed that the selection of a life partner and preparation for marriage go a long way to promote marital satisfaction and stability

Cultural Variations in the Ideas of Wellbeing for Sustainable Development: A Comparative Review on the Traditional Akan and the Western Euro-American

There is a strong consensus that wellbeing or sustainable living are inextricably linked to cultural values, especially regarding individuals, and individuals in relation to each other and their environment. Qualities of independence and interdependence as well as human-environment relations are essential in most cultures, but particular cultures place value on one than the other and has attracted much attention in wellbeing studies, especially, those on indigenous cultures in comparison with Western life-ways.Wellbeing studies have been skewed towards Western cultures and traditional cultures of developing countries in the Pacific Islands and Asia, even though the greater majority of sub-Saharan African countries are going through periods of transition, including industrialization and the accompanying nutrition transition, nuances of public health burden and environmental degradation, as well as poverty and conflicts, which are directly or indirectly related to people’s assessment of their own wellbeing, including indigenous people.This paper therefore compares the traditional Akan culture’s ideas of wellbeing with that of the Western Euro-American. Due to the broad nature of the wellbeing subject, the paper focuses on independent- interdependent values and ideas of the “person” between the two groups, and how these ideas impact on their environments for sustainable development. Keywords: Western/Euro-American, Traditional/Indigenous Culture, Wellbeing, Sustainable Development, Akan, Independence, and Interdependenc

Intellectual Property, Developing Countries and the Law and Policy of the European Union : Towards Postcolonial Control of Development

The control of knowledge and information in the 21st century is a battleground. The reason is simple: information has become a ‘prime resource’ in modern economic life. The complex ecosystem of information is encapsulated in legal parlance as intellectual property. Characteristically intellectual property regimes create policy restrictions, in the form of exclusive rights to commercial use, on the otherwise free availability of knowledge and information in order to compensate for the cost of production of the knowledge or information. The exclusive rights, in effect, make access a saleable commodity and create the basis of markets for knowledge and technology. While these exclusive rights enable knowledge and technology markets, they also create social tension over the price of access and the lack of access. We have seen this tension played out in relation to access to medicines and biomedical technologies. This thesis attempted to provide the first integrative analysis of how the EU’s rulemaking on intellectual property, both at home and abroad, impacts the ability of developing countries to utilize the flexibilities flowing from the TRIPS Agreement to promote public health and access to medicines. The EU’s intellectual property policy has been conceptualized as comprising two distinct but intertwined normative regimes – the internal and external. The thesis argues that the EU’s internal and external intellectual property policies have developed in manners that are tightly intertwined and detrimental to developing countries’ ability to promote public health and access to medicines. It problematizes the issue in the context of postcolonial theory, supplemented by other theories. This theory underscores the notion that the overly compliant attitude of most developing countries towards international intellectual property laws – despite their obvious effects on their economies – goes beyond contemporary political and economic circumstances. It can be attributed to the colonial roots and neo-colonial structures of this body of law, perpetrated through the EU’s internal and external policy. The development of this law has been complicit in legitimizing the economic control of developing countries at the expense of their development. The overall finding is that the current EU intellectual property policy making approach, both at home and abroad, does not offer the necessary freedom for development in developing countries. It simply works to protect the EU’s industrial interest, with serious implications for public health. This observation is supported by the findings of five individual essays, which recommends, among others, for the EU to streamline its development, industrial and trade policies in ways that could simultaneously meet the development and health care needs of developing countries and the EU’s economic interest. Externally, it recommends that developing countries should not be forced to adopt the kind of laws discussed in this thesis through Free Trade Agreements. If they are, the following measures should be considered: (1) inclusion of a clause on transitional arrangements for developing countries specific to intellectual property in the Free Trade Agreements; (2) inclusion of a mandatory clause that clearly links the objectives for intellectual property protection and enforcement to a balance between the promotion of technological innovation and access to medicines; (3) framing the provisions on public health in the Free Trade Agreements as mandatory requirements or express exceptions, which will stipulate that the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement cannot lead to derogation from the protection of public health; (4) the inclusion of strong and comprehensive sustainable development chapters in the Free Trade Agreements, which are to be effectively implemented and enforced; and (5) allowing for reservations within the meaning of Article 19, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in future Free Trade Agreements. Finally, the concept of substantive equilibrium has been proposed as a means of delinking the EU’s intellectual property policy from post-colonialism.Informaation ja tiedon hallinta on 2000-luvun taistelukenttä. Syy tähän on yksinkertainen: tieto on nykypäivän talouselämän keskeisin resurssi. Tiedon monitahoinen ekosysteemi hahmottuu oikeuden näkökulmasta pitkälti immateriaalioikeuksien kautta. Tyypillisesti immateriaalioikeudet asettavat rajoitteita informaation ja tiedon muutoin vapaalle saatavuudelle määrittelemällä yksinoikeuden kaupalliseen käyttöön korvaukseksi tietämyksen ja tiedon tuottamiseen liittyvistä kuluista. Tosiasiallisesti tällainen yksinoikeus muuttaa käyttöoikeuden myytäväksi hyödykkeeksi ja luo pohjan tietämyksen ja teknologian markkinoille. Sen lisäksi, että yksinoikeudet mahdollistavat tietämyksen ja teknologian markkinat, ne luovat myös sosiaalista jännitettä siihen, millä hinnalla tietämys ja teknologia ovat käytettävissä, jos ylipäätään ovat. Näitä jännitteitä olemme jo nähneet, kun kyse on ollut esimerkiksi lääkkeiden saatavuudesta ja biolääketieteen tekniikoista. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena oli analysoida, miten EU:n immateriaalioikeuksia koskevat määräykset – sekä EU:n sisäisesti että sen ulkosuhteissa – vaikuttavat kehittyvien maiden kykyyn hyödyntää TRIPS-sopimukseen sisältyviä joustomahdollisuuksia kansanterveyden ja lääkkeiden saatavuuden edistämiseksi. EU:n immateriaalioikeuspolitiikka on käsitteellistetty kattamaan kaksi erillistä mutta toisiinsa kietoutuvaa normatiivista menettelytapaa: sisäinen ja ulkoinen politiikka. Väitöskirjassa argumentoidaan, että EU:n sisäinen ja ulkoinen immateriaalioikeuspolitiikka ovat kehittyneet tiiviisti sidoksissa toisiinsa. Ne vaikuttavat haitallisesti kehittyvien maiden kykyyn edistää kansanterveyttä ja parantaa lääkkeiden saatavuutta. Väitöskirjassa problematisoidaan tätä jälkikoloniaalisen teorian ja täydentävien muiden teorioiden valossa. Tässä teoriassa korostetaan, että useimpien kehittyvien maiden kovin alistuvainen suhtautuminen kansainvälisiin immateriaalinormeihin – huolimatta niiden ilmeisistä haitallisistavaikutuksista kyseisten maiden talouteen – nousee vallitsevia poliittisia ja taloudellisia olosuhteita tärkeämmäksi. Syy tähän on löydettävissä näiden normien koloniaalisista juurista ja uuskoloniaalisista rakenteista, jotka heijastuvat EU:n sisäiseen ja ulkoiseen politiikkaan. Kyseisten normien kehitys on osaltaan ollut oikeuttamassa kehittyvien maiden talouden hallitsemista maiden kehityksen kustannuksella. Johtopäätöksenä väitöskirjassa todetaan, että EU:n nykyinen sisäinen ja ulkoinen immateriaalioikeuspolitiikka ei tarjoa riittävää vapautta kehityksen mahdollistamiseksi kehittyvissä maissa. Se yksinkertaisesti suojelee EU:n elinkeinoelämän etuja, millä on vakavia kansanterveydellisiä seurauksia. Havaintoa tukevat viiden eri artikkelin tulokset, joiden pohjalta suositellaan muun muassa, että EU virtaviivaistaisi kehitys-, teollisuus- ja kauppapolitiikkojaan siten, että ne samanaikaisesti täyttäisivät kehittyvien maiden kehitys- ja terveydenhoitotarpeet ja olisivat EU:n taloudellisten etujen mukaisia. EU:n ulkosuhteiden osalta suositellaan, että kehittyviä maita ei pakotettaisi hyväksymään tässä opinnäytetyössä kuvatun kaltaisia normeja vapaakauppasopimusten kautta. Mikäli näin kuitenkin tehdään, seuraavia toimenpiteitä tulisi harkita: (1) kehittyvien maiden siirtymätoimenpiteitä koskevan lausekkeen lisääminen vapaakauppasopimuksiin immateriaalioikeuksien osalta; (2) pakollinen lauseke, jossa selkeästi yhdistetään toisiinsa immateriaalioikeuksien suojelun ja toimeenpanon tavoitteet ja pyrkimys löytää tasapaino teknisen innovoinnin edistämisen ja lääkkeiden saatavuuden välillä; (3) kansanterveyttä koskevien säännösten merkitseminen vapaakauppasopimuksissa pakollisiksi säännöksiksi tai erityisiksi poikkeuksiksi, joissa määrätään, että vapaakauppasopimuksen toteuttaminen ei voi johtaa kansanterveyden turvaamisen huonontumiseen; (4) voimakkaiden ja kokonaisvaltaisten, kestävää kehitystä koskevien lukujen lisääminen vapaakauppasopimuksiin, joita tulee toteuttaa ja toimeenpanna tehokkaasti; ja (5) mahdollisuus valtiosopimusoikeutta koskevan Wienin sopimuksen artiklassa 19 tarkoitettuihin varaumiin tulevissa vapaakauppasopimuksissa. Lopuksi on ehdotettu aineellisoikeudellinen tasapaino -käsitettä keinoksi tehdä selvä ero EU:n immateriaalioikeuspolitiikan ja jälkikolonialismin välille.Siirretty Doriast

FPGA-Based Intelligent Traffic Controller with Remote Operation Mode

This paper covers the design and implementation of an intelligent traffic management system for an isolated intersection. The vehicular traffic management system employs Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) as the central decision-making unit and combines its speed and high number of I/O with other system components such as the ESP8266 Wi-Fi module, to record real-time traffic information and apportion green-time for each phase of traffic signal. The design and implementation incorporate three different operational modes namely, fixed time mode, sensor actuated mode and remote control mode, to alleviate vehicular traffic congestion and also reduce the risk of accidents at intersections. The incorporation of remote control mode, which enables an authorized personnel to remotely control the traffic, using a cloud-based application running on a portable device, makes this system different from previous works. Simulation using a prototype of the model on a model intersection, shows that the system can reduce waiting time and increase throughput at the intersections

Achieving Sustainability and Scale-Up of Mobile Health Noncommunicable Disease Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Views of Policy Makers in Ghana

Background: A growing body of evidence shows that mobile health (mHealth) interventions may improve treatment and care for the rapidly rising number of patients with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A recent realist review developed a framework highlighting the influence of context factors, including predisposing characteristics, needs, and enabling resources (PNE), for the long-term success of mHealth interventions. The views of policy makers will ultimately determine implementation and scale-up of mHealth interventions in SSA. However, their views about necessary conditions for sustainability and scale-up remain unexplored. Objective: This study aimed to understand the views of policy makers in Ghana with regard to the most important factors for successful implementation, sustainability, and scale-up of mHealth NCD interventions. Methods: Members of the technical working group responsible for Ghana’s national NCD policy were interviewed about their knowledge of and attitude toward mHealth and about the most important factors contributing to long-term intervention success. Using qualitative methods and applying a qualitative content analysis approach, answers were categorized according to the PNE framework. Results: A total of 19 policy makers were contacted and 13 were interviewed. Interviewees had long-standing work experience of an average of 26 years and were actively involved in health policy making in Ghana. They were well-informed about the potential of mHealth, and they strongly supported mHealth expansion in the country. Guided by the PNE framework’s categories, the policy makers ascertained which critical factors would support the successful implementation of mHealth interventions in Ghana. The policy makers mentioned many factors described in the literature as important for mHealth implementation, sustainability, and scale-up, but they focused more on enabling resources than on predisposing characteristics and need. Furthermore, they mentioned several factors that have been rather unexplored in the literature. Conclusions: The study shows that the PNE framework is useful to guide policy makers toward a more systematic assessment of context factors that support intervention implementation, sustainability, and scale-up. Furthermore, the framework was refined by adding additional factors. Policy makers may benefit from using the PNE framework at the various stages of mHealth implementation. Researchers may (and should) use the framework when investigating reasons for success (or failure) of interventions.DFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2019 - 2020 / Technische Universität Berli

Determining the potential of mobilephone-based health interventions in Kumasi, Ghana

Background: Numerous reviews have reported generally positive outcomes of mobile phone-based health (mHealth) interventions in the sub-Saharan African countries, especially for people with non-communicable diseases. At the same time, the mHealth landscape is burdened by a lack of sustainability. A recently published review has identified several context factors that influence the successful implementation of mHealth. Therefore, the aim is to use these contextual factors to assess the potential for mHealth in a particular clinical setting.Design: The study used a cross-sectional, descriptive design.Setting: The clinical setting of the study was the ‘Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’ in Kumasi, Ghana.Participants: 150 patients attending the diabetes clinic were surveyed.Main outcome measures: Context factors that influence the perceived usefulness and ease of use of mHealth.Results: The survey revealed that patients at the diabetes centre had a positive attitude towards mobile phones, but also a low familiarity. Whereas patients faced several access barriers to care, most enabling resources for the successfuland sustainable implementation of mHealth interventions such as access to mobile phones and electricity were available.Conclusions: There is a high potential for mHealth in the setting of the diabetes clinic in Kumasi, Ghana.Keywords: Ghana, mHealth, Diabetes, potentialFunding: None Declare

Regionalism and Economic Integration in Africa: A Conceptual and Theoretical Perspective

A well-established strand of the literature on regionalism and economic integration has made clear that economic, geopolitical, and socio-cultural relationships across the globe, for which Africa is no exception, have been changing rapidly in the last few decades. African leaders have been embracing these concepts as vital elements of their development agenda and have engaged their countries in a number of integration arrangements. This study has investigated regionalism and economic integration in Africa from a conceptual and theoretical perspective. The study identified that (i) the rationalist’s theory of neorealism and neoliberalism, (ii) the social constructivism theory, and (iii) several theories of economic integration are very relevant in explaining the formation of regional and economic blocs in Africa. Theories of economic integration that focus on trade, economic interdependency, monetary, fiscal, and political policy coordination seem to be the main forces driving regionalism and economic integration on the continent. The study revealed transportation and mobility of factors of production, limited intra-African trade, multi-memberships, macroeconomic divergence, and conflicts as key factors hindering the success of regionalism and economic integration in Africa. Although regionalism and economic integration on the continent is plagued with these challenges, there are opportunities and possibilities in the power and energy sectors, the manufacturing sector, and in private-public partnerships that the continent can explore to accelerate Africa’s speed of regional and economic integration, crucial for economic growth and development

Local Revenue Mobilization Mechanisms: Evidence from the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District in Ghana

This paper examined the local revenue mobilization mechanisms in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District in Ghana. A total of 214 respondents made up of 20 officials of the Assembly and 194 tax payers were involved in the study. The study demonstrated that despite the availability of other sources of local revenue, the Assembly was yet to take advantage of them. The strength of the Assembly’s local revenue collection measures included revenue collectors’ inclusion in tax decisions, house-to-house collection, and database. However, the weaknesses included poor taxpayer participation in tax decisions, inadequate personnel for revenue mobilization and poor cash management systems and accountability mechanisms at the Assembly. Some of the challenges the Assembly faced in improving local revenue generation were unwillingness on the part of the taxpayers to meet tax obligation, low pace of development and political considerations. It is recommended that the Assembly should put in place strong monitoring and supervisory mechanisms to check the revenue collectors, sanctions defaulting collectors, and also create room for private participation in local revenue collection. Keywords: Decentralization, revenue mobilization, subsidiarity principle, fiscal decentralizatio

Assessing the use of hydrogels to harvest atmospheric water for agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Management at Massey University, Manawatū campus, New Zealand

Agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions globally faces a growing challenge of water scarcity and initiatives to increase water-availability for crops are needed. The hygroscopicity of hydrogels underpins the real opportunity to desorb water that can be used to support agricultural production in water scarce areas. Research to date has predominantly focussed on direct contact absorption of water in a liquid phase. The opportunity for hydrogels to absorb water from the atmosphere is less studied. Specifically, the impact of relative humidity and temperature on hydrogel hygroscopicity and potential for desorption of this water under environmental pressures that might be expected in a plant root zone are poorly described in literature. Such information will underpin assessment of the extent to which atmospheric water absorption might serve as an alternative water source for plants use in the arid and semi-arid regions. This study was therefore undertaken to ascertain hydrogels hygroscopicity and desorption potential with specific consideration of agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions. The research aimed to provide information on the hygroscopicity potential of different hydrogels, and how different relative humidity percentages and temperature influence hydrogels hygroscopicity and different applied pressures impact water desorption from hydrogels. The effect of relative humidity, time and temperature on hygroscopicity was investigated using replicates of five hydrogels of different composition placed in five different relative humidity chambers (63 %, 76 %, 84 %, 95 % and 100 %) and under three different temperature levels (10 ºC, 20 ºC and 30 ºC ). The results showed that hydrogel type, relative humidity and time influences hygroscopicity significantly, and that the chemical composition of hydrogels can explain hygroscopicity. There was no influence of temperature on absorption. Hydrogels with no N content showed increased absorption of atmospheric water with time, and this is explained through the absence of an N-driven crosslinking effect on water absorption. Absorption of atmospheric water by the best performing hydrogel (Yates Waterwise Water Storage Crystals; at 3.139 g/g at 100 % relative humidity and 30 ºC) in this study was explained by first order model behaviour at 20 ºC for all relative humidity levels except at 63 %. Further research was conducted on the hydrogels defined as the best and worst absorbing in the initial experiments. These hydrogels were placed in contact with liquid water to yield the freely swollen state, and then desorption potential for plant access was investigated using different pressure levels on suction plates. The results clearly showed that increasing pressure increases water desorption between 0.1 and 1 bar pressure. However, between 1 bar and 15 bar no further water is lost. The best absorbing hydrogels identified in this study desorbed more water than the worst. However, this work finds that for both tested hydrogels, pressure beyond 15 bar would be required to desorb hygroscopic water for plant access and use. The study therefore infers that the hygroscopicity potential of hydrogels is optimum for hydrogels with no N content exposed to high relative humidity (above 84 %) over periods of daily cooling from late night and early morning where the dew point might be reached. Such conditions do overlap with some arid and semi-arid regions. However, even where these environmental conditions for optimal absorption are reached, plants are unlikely to be able to desorb the hydrogel water. Therefore, an engineering approach would be needed to physically or mechanical desorb water. In this scenario it is unlikely that hydrogels would be mixed into the soil. Instead, a system could be deployed where hydrogels are exposed to atmospheric water in ‘banks’ which can be closed periodically for desorption. Released water could then be channelled for irrigation. Solar power may be a viable energy source to drive this scenario, although further work is required to fully explore the opportunity